Boyle’s Law
Never understanding the idealism of it. This internal combustion engine was a simple process to learn and remember, but it was my illustrations that earned praise. Doppler too, and over the years you could hear it approaching before becoming a poem. Inversely, the proportion of engagement waned when it was no longer compulsory. There is a science of education which is based quite simply on kindness. Copious amounts of copying. Extrapolating how, with that kind of engagement, I should have achieved so much more than a Grade 4. What would Hirsch make of this lack of deep knowledge? Though the logic is smaller is greater. Remembering is an expansion across time.
Gunpowder
Gunnery and blasting and plots. Black powder. Hidden in sheds, unless. Accident propelled from the elixir of life. And birth of Irony. Prime of Pacific willow. Peppered and saltpetre follow-on. This and alcohol to shape a world. There are easy methods for creation, like chopping down burnt trees on burnt islands. That Gunpowder School where learning takes place in a safe environment. Its explosive history in tautology and punning.
When You Want a Room to Yourself
There is a room to rent in the awesome opportunity of its offering, available in the immediacy of an effortless life where such fantasy is en-suite. Having moved in and on, it is now yours – no interactive fiction game, no escaping, no self-contained alternatives, no looking for a share. Good is in a room when you believe. There are six tips for painting a room you: remove the dreams of those from before; tape all trims with blue; prime your work ethic with hopefulness; brush or roll according to what you have; use the Why? technique; finish the blue with blue. You’ve slept on the blind side, imagined having been alone until turning over to see – oh dear… We are in this story deep now, in this amazing room that is south facing to imagination, the space almost to yourself, still asking the question and wondering how blue loneliness looks. Amuse yourself reading A Room to Yourself Handy Book found in the attic amongst the broken toys and trunks left open and not as empty as you had assumed. When your thoughts turn negative ask yourself if you have enough salt and white sage to scatter and burn to prevent the need for black tourmaline. While out driving and you spot in passing the Spoil Yourself Someday Room Offer sign, pause and reflect on what Gertrude Stein might counter about the accommodation you already have and how tenderness should overcome pondering.
Barthes’ Brando
Hollywood, not fringe theatre. The contender’s cut? He came to praise a style, not mock / it was a Latin fore, not lock. Sweat gets into tresses as well, but isn’t the sign of moral debate. Unlike men, women are mussed or plaited and still nocturnally ill-prepared. Symmetry of the bangs. Yankee appropriations fill the semiotic cup. How it is a perfect cut for teaching the magic three. Then there is the director’s. This Lupercalia purging of perspiration and hair. Boot polish was for another role.
Mike Ferguson is an American permanently resident in the UK. His most recent poetry collection is Professions [The Red Ceilings Press, 2018] and a collection of his found prose poems is forthcoming with Knives Forks and Spoons Press.